


Father's Day in a Graveyard

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce is a bad dad but he tries, Damian is crushing on Steph hardcore, Fluff, Gen, you know he is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:38:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Father's Day and Stephanie Brown hasn't been seen all day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Father's Day in a Graveyard

“Have you seen Steph?” Drake asked, walking into the Batcave. Damian looked up from his training to see who the idiot was addressing. Grayson, who was at the computer, frowned.

 

“Not lately,” he said. “Why?”

 

“I haven’t heard from her all day,” Drake said. “She normally answers her texts within a few hours of me sending them. And they say they’ve been read. I was worried, that’s all.”

 

“Brown will surely show up for patrol,” Damian said, ignoring the twisting worry in his gut.

 

“You’re right,” Grayson said. “She’ll come.”

 

But this proved to be untrue, as Damian found out a few hours later. He had been patrolling for a while already, and she hadn’t checked in. Damian was uneasy. Normally she showed up.

 

“Grayson,” Damian said, stopping. Grayson turned around.

 

“No names on the field,” he said without malice. “What do you need, Robin?”

 

“I’m going over there,” Damian said, pointing vaguely in the opposite direction. “There’s no need for you to come with me.” And with that, he flipped away before Grayson could protest. Damian put some distance between himself and the others before squatting on a roof and pulling out a device that displayed Gotham lit up by brightly colored blips. Each blip represented a tracker that had been placed on each member of his family. Damian was sure the others knew they were there, just as he was aware of Father’s and Gordon’s, and sometimes he found ones from Todd. He had removed Drake’s, though. He focused on the purple blip on the screen. It was nearish to him, but not near Brown’s house. It also wasn’t moving, so she wasn’t on patrol. Damian followed the map.

 

His tracker brought him to a graveyard. Damian landed quietly behind her. Brown was wearing civilian clothes. Damian stared at her back. Judging by her posture, she wasn’t crying or even particularly reverent. She was just staring at the grave.

 

“I know you’re there,” Brown said.

 

“Tt,” Damian said in response, and he walked up next to her to see whose grave she was looking at. _ARTHUR BROWN._ Besides the name, it gave a date of birth and death. There was no other information, no little “Beloved father and friend”. From what little experience Damian had with graves (Grandfather and Grandmother’s, Todd’s), there was typically a note to help others remember them. But Damian knew who Arthur Brown was.

 

“Why are you here?” Damian asked. “Neglecting patrol?”

 

“It’s Father’s Day,” Brown said in answer.

 

“I am aware of that,” Damian said. “Grayson forced me to make a card.”

 

“Y-you made a card for Bruce?” Brown asked, turning from her father’s grave incredulously. Damian blushed under her stare.

 

“It wasn’t anything important,” Damian muttered, but he could still feel her smile. “So why are you at your father’s grave?”

 

“Because,” Brown said with a heavy sigh. “I don’t...I don’t have a dad. It feels weird to not have a dad on Father’s Day. So I got him those and stuff.” She made a gesture toward the daisies laying at the base of the grave. Damian hadn't noticed them before.

 

“Drake and Grayson don’t have fathers,” Damian said. “You could’ve...not celebrated together.”

 

“But they _do_ have a dad,” Brown said, and she sounded bitter, which Damian did not like and he never wanted her to sound that way again. “Bruce is their dad, Bruce is your dad, Bruce is everyone’s dad.” Damian thought he heard an underlying, “But not _my_ dad.” Suddenly Damian remembered that Father had adopted all of the Robins. Except Brown. Brown had been cast out from the “Batfamily” time and time again. He knew how it felt to be cast out. Mother’s Day was pretty much an unbroachable subject in the manor, even without all of Damian’s mother issues. Funnily enough, Brown had a pretty good mother, from what Damian could see. Damian did not want to mention that, so he tentatively reached out his hand and took hers. She looked at him, surprised, but Damian fixated in on the daisies at the base of the grave and didn’t look at her. He wished he could feel her hand through his gloves. She squeezed his hand.

 

“Thanks kid,” she said, even though he was sure he had said nothing of comfort. “I should get suited up.” Damian nodded, and they turned, and he quickly dropped her hand, because Father was standing a few rows behind them, wearing full Batman regalia and staring right at them.

 

“Stephanie,” Father said. “Do you...want to patrol with me?” Brown took a step back, in shock probably. As far as Damian knew, the last time Father and Brown had patrolled together was when she was Robin. And for Father to extend the invitation...

 

“Um. Sure,” Brown squeaked.

 

“Good,” Father said, and he sort of...sort of _smiled._ Damian was sure he’d imagined it. “Meet me back here when you’re ready.”

 

“Yeah,” Brown said. “I’ll just be--going.” She sprinted away without a last look at Arthur Brown’s grave. Father walked up to Damian and looked at the grave.

 

“Was he a good father?” Damian asked.

 

“He locked her in closets,” Father said, and he sounded offhand, but Damian knew the detachment was to prevent his voice from doing something embarrassing, like breaking. Damian felt a rush of anger at Arthur Brown and he wanted to dump his corpse in a Lazarus Pit, slap him across the face and make him be nice to Stephanie. Damian clenched his fists to control the urge to punch the grave.

 

“I know,” Father said, his voice, too, laced with anger.

 

“You should be nicer to her.”

 

“I should,” Father said and the agreement surprised Damian. He never thought that Father regretted the way he treated Stephanie. But maybe he did. And maybe asking her to patrol with him was his way of doing father-daughter stuff with him.

 

“I should get back to patrol,” Damian said.

 

“Okay,” Father said. Damian walked towards the nearest building. When he arrived at the edge of the graveyard, he turned back and faced his father.

  
“Happy Father’s Day,” Damian said, and this time he was sure he didn’t imagine his father’s smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Father's Day, friends!! I get real angry about the Bruce/Steph relationship sometimes so I had so write myself a thing to fix it...and it so happened to coincide with Father's Day!
> 
> Thanks for reading! As always, comments are welcome!


End file.
